Sinterklaas is not Santa Claus

I was out exploring with a friend the other day and she informed me that Santa here is not like Santa at home. Santa doesn’t have a sleigh or reindeer or elves or live in the North Pole – no, Santa Claus here lives in Spain! I was a little sceptical at first until we saw “Santa” aka “Sinterklaas” in one of the store windows.

Just read on Wiki: New Amsterdam in North America originally was home to the Dutch and but eventually it was occupied by the English and renamed New York City. The name Santa Claus is derived from the Dutch Sinterklaas.

The picture above Sinterclaas arriving from Spain.

Sinterklaas has a long white beard, wears a red dress and hat and holds a long gold staff with a fancy curled top. Sinterklaas carries 2 big books with all the children’s names in them, which states whether they have been good or naughty in the past year. Sounds familiar, right? Ok, now more detail.....

Sinterklaas arrives in Belgium (and the Netherlands) from Spain by steamboat. Sinterklaas rides a white horse over the rooftops named “Slechtweervandaag” which means “bad weather today”.... (What a strange name for a horse in a country like Belgium.....where rain is typical). Ok, so this is the odd/racist part that I’m having trouble getting used to: Sinterklaas does not have elves – he is assisted by many mischievous helpers with black faces and colourful outfits called Zwarte Piet which means ‘Black Petes’ in Dutch. This came to have racist connotations, originally Pete was said to be an imported African servant of Saint Nicolas – now the story has a more politically correct explanation – Pete’s face is said to be “black from soot” from climbing down the chimneys to deliver the gifts. Attempts have been made to change this racist tradition and introduce “Colored Petes” with the story that Sinterklaas passed through a rainbow with his boat on his way over from Spain – red, blue, green and yellow Petes – but it hasn’t caught on yet.

The original story was that Sinterklaas had only one helper – Zwarte Piet or Pete – but it was the Canadian soldiers during World War II who liberated the Netherlands and helped organize the first post war Sinterklaas celebration that changed this into multiple helpers!

Sinterklaas brings gifts to children on the evening of December 5^th and the children get them on December 6^th. They do still celebrate our traditional Christmas Eve and Day – but no presents during this time. No stockings here - children put their shoes at the bottom of the chimney or by the front door and when they wake up the shoes are filled with candy (I wouldn’t want to be the person filling Dylan’s sneakers – or eating the candy that was in them for that matter!) Sinterklaas carries 2 books with him – Golden Book and Black Book – you know what that means – also, they get a pile of wood or salt instead of coal here! Instead of threatening no toys, parents here threaten their children that they will be put in the sac and taken back to Spain on the boat with Sinterklaas – that’s a little scary!

So, it is quite interesting that they don’t have the same traditions as we do at home – especially the Steamboat part – and why Spain?